I'm further north than he is. We have piles of snow outside our hospital that are 15 ft high. I'll grab a pic to post tomorrow. One of my boy scouts called last night to tell me he had 20 ft drifts where he lived.

That was a great storm, although we only got about 18 inches here, 30 in the mtns just to the east.

I think the New Yorkers need to come down and teach our guys how to handle the snow. PA did a real pathetic job this time. Less than 2 ft of snow and the interstates were shut down for 2 days? People stuck in traffic for over 17 hours. I could see if this happened in an area that has never had snow before but in PA?

IndianaBrown

Before moving to Indiana I lived in the snow belt in Erie County PA. Until the lake froze each year, (and again when it thawed,) it was common to get 4 to 8 inches of snow every 4 days or so. It was not unusual to get 12 inch snowstorms back to back. Hauling it away in trucks was just a part of life. The state, county, and townships did a great job as long as the snowfall was less than an inch an hour or under 2 feet total, but that was about the tipping point for problems.

Here in central Indiana we got about 12 inches last Tue/Wed. Some rural counties declared emergencies for a day or so, but the state did a great job keeping the interstates open. The city of Indianapolis did a good job keeping the main emergency routs open, but the secondary streets were pretty rough for a couple days, and most of the side streets have still not been plowed 4 days later. I live on a secondary street, so my dirveway was plowed shut 4 times over 3 days.

When a city like Atlanta gets an inch or so, it is paralyzed. No salt, few plows, inexperienced drivers, no snow tires, etc.

was it the snow that shut down the pa highway, or the ice caused wrecks? happens here in ice storms. one or two trucks sideways or flipped and the roads are all done.

Logged

.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

I think it was ice that caused wrecks and traffic ended up being backed up for over 50 miles so the plows and cinder trucks couldn't get through. If the people would have stayed off the roads like they were told to it would have been much better, but the state should have actually shut down the highway before it got as bad as it did. They finally got the interstates reopened yesterday, some of the truck drivers and other motorists were stuck at the truck stops since Wednesday.

The real problem was the ineptness of the PA officials. Yes they had some ice and snow, but they decided it best not to plow the ice and snow on the first night. With all the big trucks it basically packed it down into 4-6 inches of ice with plenty of ruts that couldn't be plowed. It was like driving thru a mine field. Then it took them over 24 hours before they finally shut the roads down and then had a ton of trucks and cars that had been stranded and out of fuel. I spent 2 days stuck on I-81 before I decided to fight my way over to the turnpike on county roads. It took 4 1/2 hours to go 60 miles on roads that still had 5-6 inches of snow/ice/slush 2 days after the storm. The hour 4 1/2 hours I saw ONE plow truck. The sad part was, when I got home to NY, we had had about the same amount of freezing rain/ snow and the roads where clear and dry.

Stay the heck away from PA if your traveling in the winter.

Logged

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison

We've had over 67" of snow so far this year. I know, compared to 15 feet, that's nothing, but it's a lot for us. We are now just a few days short of an all-time-record for number of days of continuous snow cover (60 days so far).

Here's a snapshot of my John Deere, which is equipped with a snow-blade, but it wasn't enough to push it out.